football

"The one thing they probably need to look at is, if they are paid something and they become employees, there would be a real chance that they would be taxed, that their scholarship would be taxed as a taxable benefit," Harbaugh told reporters on the weekly Big Ten coaches conference call.

"I don't know if they've really looked at that and wondered if they might not be better off in a situation that they have (now). That's my question. The youngsters might be in a worse position if they're paid something, some amount of money and they become employees of the university."

While basking in the afterglow of the Defensive UFR, I started thinking this might be the week we see a little JP on offense. I am thinking this would be done primarily to put stuff on tape that D'Antoni and staff would have to prepare for next week. My guess would be in a slot/jet-sweep look and/or as a 2nd (or 3rd) RB in the backfield.

Not being an football guru, I am not sure if this is best done by running plays using him so counters to a MSU overreaction could be deployed the next week or using him as a decoy to save his actual usage in those plays for the MSU game itself. Maybe putting out for the first time vs. MSU would achieve the same results?

Of course they could just wait to add some packages for him during the bye week, but I get the feeling the Jim may take the opportunity to deploy the Peppers - or the threat of Peppers - to mess with our siblings up the road.

This is the S&P+ data for opponents thru 6 weeks of UM, OSU, MSU. I also posted those 3 teams week over week changes in data - both OSU and MSU had rough weeks in S&P+ rightly so. This is still early enough in the year, 1 bad or good week can make you move a lot.

CMU's D took a huge step up for holding N.Ill to 19. Even if N. Ill offense has a bad rank. There could have been other factors like CMU's earlier opponents (not named MSU) doing better.

VA Tech's offensive S&P ranking sunk as Pitt held them down and they continue to look like boogers.

Utah slid its way up on both offense and defense as they did nothing but sit in a bye as other top teams looked LOL. BYU's D also got a 10ish slot pop. Maryland's O sunk further into the abyss thanks to UM.

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Overall same perception as last week - MSU has faced the best offenses, and OSU the worst. UM has faced by far the best defenses (will be 4 top 50 defenses after this week). Even UNLV's D is wonderfully meh by S&P+ standard? Which is better than we thought.

The article looks at the S&P+ numbers through Game 5, and is very positive about Michigan's chances. Here are severalhighlights:

Ignoring preconceptions, Michigan has clearly been the best team in the East so far. The Wolverines have had by far the best defense in a great defensive conference, and their résumé features two of the division's most impressive performances. A dominant shutout of BYU that beat Nebraska and Boise State and nearly beat UCLA, and a tight loss at a Utah that destroyed Oregon in Eugene (which happens to be the most impressive Michigan State home victim).

While we wait, the numbers suggest the division is Michigan's to lose. That changes if Michigan State takes the Wolverines down in Week 7, but it would take a significant upset for us to learn much this weekend. Michigan's 83 percent win probability against Northwestern might feel high, but Ohio State's (88 percent against Maryland) and Michigan State's (88 percent against Rutgers) do not. The Buckeyes and Spartans should cruise, and Week 7 will be when this race begins to truly take shape.

To me, the question isn't whether Michigan's for real. It's whether Ohio State and Michigan State are ready to look the part. Scoff if you want, but they haven't. Michigan and Iowa in the Big Ten title game. That's what we all expected to see, right?